How Salt Shaped Civilization: From the Roman Empire to the French Revolution
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- From the very first settlement in recorded history, early humans knew that to survive in the new age of agriculture, they'd need two things: access to water, and a source of salt. Without salt, our meats and vegetables wouldn't last long enough to help us survive droughts, monsoons, and long periods between harvests. Our bodies wouldn't have the necessary nutrients to live, and the entire experiment in building permanent villages might have failed. Salt tells the story of everything- as it was a foundational component of every culture, ever. And the lengths societies went to in order to procure the stuff...well that gave us innovations ranging from commerce to hydraulics to so much more. In this video we look at the origins of the salt trade. The myths and legends surrounding its discovery, and the incredible stories from the earliest days of history all the way to the 20th century that have followed humanity's long and important love affair with salt.
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0:00 - Introduction
1:07 - Salt Everywhere
4:36 - The Beginning
8:24 - Salted Fish
11:21 - Religion and Mythology
13:51 - Three Origin Stories
17:19 - The Early Salt Trade
19:54 - The Big Change
22:37 - Fish Sauce
25:54 - Riches and Salt Fortunes
28:03 - Ancient Rome
30:18 - Meat and Cheese
31:17 - Salt Wars
34:34 - Revolution and Resistance
37:33 - Salt in the Developing World
40:09 - Sausage and Sauerkraut
42:24 - On Every Table
46:32 - Burger and Fries
49:14 - American Salt History
51:17 - Conclusion
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Video Credits:
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• 1956 Frigidaire Refrig...
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Location pins:
1. J Cafe (Israeli food & grocery): maps.app.goo.gl/kkbs1mwMty3eVfXa7
2. Le Dalat (Vietnamese): maps.app.goo.gl/kffeBDkyGbpjzAVQ9
3. El Mercado** (Meat and Cheese): maps.app.goo.gl/eHbWXpN5zu4tAeqz5
4. Ratsstube (German): maps.app.goo.gl/tsfUieVSdyVN7pWv8
5. Easy Burger (Burgers): maps.app.goo.gl/encmA7oGrbFap9FX6
** = I do need to issue a qualifier. We choose our locations carefully and are extremely proud of the fact that many places we highlight see a nice boost in business thanks to our viewers. So I feel like I owe it to you to tell you that our experience while filming here was the worst we've had on the channel, ever, in just about every facet...the food quality was a huge disappointment, and after seeing how the manager treated his own staff, we nearly cut the segment from the video entirely, and kept it in just because of how great Kit was (our server) and we wanted to at least give him a quick shout-out. This is not the place or forum for me to go into further detail on this subject but it's important for me to make clear- for the first time ever in an OTR video- this is not an endorsement of a place we chose to film. I'm certainly not saying "don't go here"- just, don't view this as our recommendation.
LOVE!!! UP!!! MERCI!! FUCKING LOVE RESPECT BREADING RABBITTS888!!!! ILOVE, INEED°YOU! Please,Take Care You Precious Ones. 😮🤢🤒❤🩹❤🔥🙏🙏☝🙌✊🤞☝🙏🙏🙏🙏
If u haven't done potato or coffee... please can you
@@ArtingFromScratch we haven't, but there is a good segment on the history of coffee in this video: th-cam.com/video/Ft59HXTGOqg/w-d-xo.html
Wow the REAL SPICE wars of Arrakis
My Mum's father was a pioneering aviator in Papua New Guinea, flying cargo in and out of highland villages after WWII. Mum told me a story about her Dad finding a little boy with an Appendicitis when he landed in a village. He flew the boy back to Port Moresby so he could go to hospital for surgery. After he recovered they took him shopping to buy something to take back to the village. They told him he could pick anything he wanted. He apparently chose a giant bag of salt. He was welcomed as a hero when he landed. Even as a child, the boy well knew the value of salt. Thank you for another great documentary. Well researched and very informative.
Bro is a legend to this day. Respect.
I am a pilot in Papua new guinea right now. Basically every flight into remote communities has several kilos of salt taken by our passengers in their cargo.
These history videos are absolute gems. In a way it teaches us more about humanity than the food.
Quick! OTR dropped a 1 hour video on salt.
How salty.
And my Fiance groaned and rolled her eyes and I told her .. “ read your book! “
My kind of entertainment, bring it on.
I couldn’t stand the bloody accent so only managed 30 secs
History Channel (when it wasn’t full blown Ancient Aliens TV) did this around a decade ago. One of those story of mankind series. Pretty good. Couldn’t get through 5 minutes of the presenters voice.
Me, ready to go to sleep...."Wait, maybe I should find out where salt comes from first"😅
Addit:
Having just finished watching the last half of your salt documentary (after watching the first half in the early hours of today), I loudly proclaim to anybody who will listen, that this doco is your Phd treatise.
Thank you, Dr Adam.
I'm sure your Professorship is just around the corner.
Your channel and your team's work is without peer on TH-cam. It educates me and gives me immense pleasure.
check out fall of civilizations, you might like that channel too
You should read salt by mark kurlanski, there’s so much more to how salt has shaped society.
The mention of Sůl nad Zlato (EN: Salt over Gold, or Salt above Gold) makes me as a Czech really happy, thank you so much for mentioning it. A couple things that I should mention about the Czech folk tale version of this story, one which was first written down by Božena Němcová in her folk tail collection and was later made into the Byl Jednou Jeden Král... movie:
1. in the movie, there is a curse placed on the Kingdom after the King commands all salt to be dumped into the river, to show that salt is "worthless to him". This backfires, but actually for a different reason: no one can enjoy eating savory foods without salt anymore, so they try to eat sweet things but get tired of it after a while.
2. instead of being taken in by the Salt god, Maruška is taken in by a magical handmaiden, who lets her watch the events on her Father's court unfold through a magical mirror. This same magical handmaiden then also takes in the King after he almost dies in the swamp, being saved by the handmaiden.
3. Maruška never returns to the palace, giving her father the bottomless wooden salt bowl before he leaves the handmaids house in the swamp. She instead marries a fisherman that lives close to the swamp.
4. the only person who refuses to ever ever give up their salt, that being the widow Kubátová, is ironically who the king marries upon returning, after he has been taught his lesson and gained some common sense (or as we call it here "selský rozum" - directly translates to "farmer's wisdom". But that's trivia.
Its amazing how much a folk tale can change from country to country, I haven't ever heard of the "Maruška marries the son of the Salt god" version of it until now xD. But it actually makes a lot of sense given how other Czech fairy tale adaptations such as The Prince and the Evening Star (CZ: Princ a Večernice) show a motif of marrying to a son/daughter of a God. It really makes me appreciate our Slavic folk stories more so than I would otherwise, since I take it for granted so often. And I would also be interested in what other people living or who've grown up in Slavic countries have as their variations on these fairy tales, so please comment down bellow if you have unique stuff you want to mention. More the merrier!
also P.S.: The mention of that Norse tale reminded me of one story in Fimfárum, where a salt mill grinds infinite salt, but is unable to be stopped at one point and ends up sinking in a boat and that's how it explains why the ocean is salty. Another reason to add the the list of proofs that Europeans cant stop talking about salt, we really do love that shit here...perhaps too much as you said the Czech and Hungarians are tied for second largest salt consumption per capita.
Yeah, I know this story.. "why ocean is salty?"@@cronoz-sensei4259 thanks for the detailed info
In Romania we have a similar fairy tale: a king demands that his daughters tell him how much they love him. The eldest daughter says that she loves him like honey. The middle daughter says that she loves him like sugar. The youngest daughter says she loves him as much as salt in a dish. The king is offended by the youngest daughter's comparison and he no longer wants her at his court. The youngest daughter is driven away and she works in the kitchen of another king. His son, the prince, falls in love with her because she cooks so well. Her father is invited to the wedding, but he doesn't recognize the bride. The bride insists on cooking dinner for her father herself. She seasons the soup and the roast with honey and sugar. The king is offended because his food doesn't taste good. Then the bride reveals that she is his daughter and explains her comparison to him again. The father realizes that his youngest daughter was wise and apologizes for his behavior.
In England all the place names that end in wich are roman towns founded on top of salt mines. lead salt pans were used by the Romans at Middlewich, Nantwich and Northwich and excavations at Middlewich and Nantwich have revealed extensive salt-making settlements.
Sandwich. Yum.
I was going to make a joke about salt but, Na.
and you win the comment section
Unusually witty joke for a TH-cam poster!
😂😂
Isnt salt NaCl ?
@@koblmo
Sodium is the point, if you get it, you get it.
You’re my fave food history channel . I can get bored of cooking shows but food history is just right up my autistic alley !
Other than having something to eat every day, I couldn't care less about food lore, but salt is much more than a food thing. It IS an important element in human civilization.
Do one with sugar... Starting and history of sugarcane cultivation. Love these documentary
Here in Indonesia, there is an old taboo that a house has to have rice, cooking oil and salt, or the house will bring misfortune. Even after online food delivery right now we have in urban, we still keep those three in our house.
very interesting. there is an old tradition in Finland that is similar! whenever someone moves into a new house or apartment, their friends have to gift them bread and salt. usually this is done at the house warming party, but the idea I think is similar: there is no life without salt (or bread)
So, Indonesian culture considers salt & rice to be lucky, also. The West even has the tradition of oil conveying a blessing. The more we know, the more interesting it all is.
@@ajknaup3530 I never believe it though, i think it is because when someone doesnt have anything to eat, they can always cook the rice with cooking oil and add salt, the very basic of fried rice. So, if I dont have rice, cooking oil and salt in my house, then according to the old saying, I am beyond poor 😀
@@jusjengkol "doesnt have anything to eat, they can always cook the rice with cooking oil and add salt,"
Um, that makes no sense. If you have rice and oil and salt, You HAVE something to eat.....I think that is the point. I'm extremely poor, but I follow this rule as much as possible. Many times, I have nothing but rice and oil and salt. I feel rich if I have a big bag of rice. I also have chickens for their eggs. Eggs are gross, but they are free protein.
@@jusjengkol oh, I get it; you don't believe in the "good luck" part. I understand that, but isn't it "good luck" to always have food, even if it's just rice?
You guys really take on the big topics.
39:52 I've been conditioned to expect a "tap tap" after hearing hard tack mentioned anywhere. Thanks @tastinghistory
I was disappointed when the word "hardtack" wasnt followed by a "tap tap", and then I realised this isnt a Tasting History video xD
Same!
Well, there goes my morning.
Time to go make a breakfast stir fry and hang out with yall. My parents immigrated from north Germany so im basically a salt expert and connoisseur
Well you’ll love this one- unless I’m forgetting something, this includes our first-ever German meal on the channel
dinner time here - might enhance the flavour with some added salt :)
@OTRontheroad it was nice seeing it. Potatos and sauerkraut is the standard. We're from the north coast so we have salted fish as much if not more than sausages though
That restaurant was really charming. You should have included Würze in the condiment hall of fame you listed, I know Maggi is pretty popular in lots of east asia
For those who want to know, the song playing in this video is Mozart's 20th Piano Concerto in D Minor K. 466
21st Piano Concerto, 2nd movement. K. 467.
I'm going to need to watch this video 6 or 10 more times to actually absorb all the information.
You're amazing. I look forward to your videos every week.
such a well researched and written video!
Extremely Welsh genetics. Also imagine yourself in the early days, you trek hundreds of miles across barren wastelands. You see water, as you have seen before, but you need to make sure this is the right place to call home. Bending down, you put your face to the dirt, licking the earth. Mm, yes. We settle here.
The book he mention: Salt by Mark Kurlansky is a good read. If you love history, you will like it.
I remember learning the world "salty" as in "a salty person"
I didn't quite understand why it was something negative since in Spanish being salty means being happy and cheerful
This fantastic OTR Team....as usual. A fact filled foray into the history of the most basic of ingredients . Great show, I’ve come to expect nothing less.
I had an early portable Video Cassette Recorder (Panasonic) that had a button labeled, "OTR", which stood for "One Touch Recording". (In the tape recorder days, you used to have to press both "Record" and "Play" to start recording. This was to prevent accidentally recording over something you had previously recorded. Audio tape recorders had this feature as well.)
And every time I see "OTR", I understand that it really means, "One Touch Recording". Thanks Obama! Thanks Panasonic.
I sat down with my phone and told my gf “ ohh a new video on salt ! “ she turned and very straight faced said - “ you know I love you … but some days your as dull as shit …” hahaha and she laughed at me .
Fantastic presentation! Enjoyed every bit of it. Your passion for the subject is apparent and makes watching/listening enjoyable. Looking forward to the next one and to seeing this channel grow!
So informative, colourful and fun way to tell history. I wish my history teachers in high school were even just half as good. thanks.
Wow! This is new! I have been binging on your channel so much, I assumed it was old at first. Amazing subject, I am fascinated by it so much that I do spend extra cash to get any salt that sounds interesting.
I love how you tie things together in your video's, your research is very in-depth and you have a natural ability to tell a story and this video is no exception. When I first started watching I was wondering if you had read the book Salt, I read his book Cod then Salt and they are both excellent reads and then you mentioned it, much to my enjoyment. Thanks for doing all these wonderful excursions into the food history of the world!
I thought I knew about the value and the history of Salt, but props to you, you've added a lot more to the story, Well done.
I enjoy your deep dives into culinary history. Salt is an intense, interesting topic. I grew up loving bagoong in Manila. Your objective, fact-based presentations are appreciated. Salt is essential to my existence. I often get up from a deep sleep at 3am to walk to the kitchen & indulge in a salt treat.
Well, I know what I'm listening to on my commute today!
I really believe this channel is the intellectual sucessor of Anthony Bourdain. What a great piece of work.
Since this vid is about salt, maybe future topic you can talk about black & white pepper.
Luckily, they said one of the best pepper come from area around here, eastern of Thailand/Cambodia/Vietnam.
I've been waiting for you to drop a new video. You guys never disappoint!
A fantastic watch, thank you for your excellent work.
Salt has been used as a food preservative since ancient times and is still an important ingredient in processed foods today, along with its flavoring properties. It's commonly used to preserve vegetables by pickling in brine, and meat by rubbing with salt and dry curing or injecting with a salt solution.
However, salt concentrations of around 10% or more are needed to prevent bacterial growth, which is much higher than what's found in most foods. As a result, the need for salt as a preservative has decreased with the introduction of refrigeration and other methods of food preservation.
My favorite find from a Patagonia cruise: Chilean Atacama Desert salt with ancho chili pepper powder in a grinder. Very nice combo!
Perfect script with fantastic directing
amazing and incredibly researched video as always
Adam, these videos must take so, so much work to research and produce. Who knew salt could be this interesting? Thanks!
Yayyy finally a new video. I finished all your other videos. Your videos are calming
Intro sounds like beginning of a book I read: Salt, a world history.
Which is very well written, highly recommend it
Excellent book! Stimulated a lot of conversations
" Ye are the Salt of the Earth, but if that salt hath lost its savour , wherewith shall it be salted ? "
This channel is a gold mine - I mean a salt mine 😜
I ain't salty at OTR dropping this video :D
The amount of work that goes into a video like this has to be immense. Thanks for your passion!
My Mother was born in a little Sicilian fishing town where the biggest business (still is) was canned sardines and anchovies. The main seller was salted sardines. Also in Sicily there's a city called Trapani that's known for salt production. In Sicily the there's a popular cheese that's called Primu Sali, which means first salt. The reason is that in the beginning it's not salty, then when it first gets salty (Don't know the exact process) it's sold.
I'm sharing this with the caption "Homage pour sel". Thanks, Adam. As a side note, your production values have reached a new high point. Kudos.
thanks, i rerally enjoy the diversity of food related topics and the historical perspective of each topic. i really love this channel1 great job guys!
Actually Antoinette wasn’t keen on holding ground toward the end. It was the clergy and other aristocracy that kept getting in the way. Marie actually was raised very differently and if she had known the extent she would have done more sooner. Unfortunately they were so removed by having their whole lives in Versailles that when they finally understood how horrific things were it was too little too late.
Salt is a symbolic of civilization Great video !!
I will say that the increase/development of human salt production and extraction have drastically thrown off the earth's natural salt cycle; which is something to keep in mind when looking at how our environments have been impacted over time by said extraction.
Beautifully crafted video. Amazing work!
First time stumbling onto your channel, well done! Very informative.
There is a video called "salt" about a village in India that makes its salt ponds anew after the monsoon water evaporates annually. Highly recommended.
I need one of these for every spice and condiment out there man good work
Another banger video about this time about the king of flavor enhancer. The OG godfather, if I may say.
Love this channel so much !
Man I love the channel. I especially love these super history heavy videos! Keep it up!
food history and food in general is my special interest so im always happy to see a new upload from you
Thank you for the enjoyment of learning!! I love these videos, I’m sure they’re a lot of work, we all appreciate it!! ❤❤❤
Loving your salty info, pretty cool.
Is it any food region not represented in Bangkok? In every episode there's a new restaurant/store from wherever with characteristic food culture that just happens to be there.
Find it fascinating.
I'm glad it comes across that way- unfortunately it is a bit limiting in what we can showcase. Bangkok's a terrific melting pot, but there are definite weaknesses; there's a reason we can't really highlight much of anything from South or Central America. There's little Cambodian, Indonesian or Malay Peranakan, weirdly enough nothing (at all!) Slavic, barely any Chinese that isn't southern, and no African cuisine outside of Nigerian and Ethiopian. But still, considering the density and affordability of what it does have, it's about as good as we could hope for and makes this channel viable.
Salt inspired the invention of deep drilling in China over 2,000 years ago. Indeed, the oil derricks that popped up in the late 1800s in the US were modeled on Chinese deep drilling machines for salt. Some of these were actually constructed by Chinese immigrant workers.
My father used to say "like meat loves salt" meaning something good, like salt and meat go hand in hand.
A lot of work to research this and well presented. Good job.
Thank-you so much that was absolutely fascinating and brilliant.
back when they were inventing brand new kinds of food like ham, and taking it around to different cities to sell, would they let people sample it first?
this is great thanks for your work amazing
once i heard or read about salt in russian.. they were saying that in times of old salt was not necessary as much as today to humans because the livong conditions were dofferen, namely the air pressure was much higher then after the "world catastrophe" after that salt become much necessary so that balance osmatic cell pressure and as a matter of fact it mimics high air preasure enviroment from within the human body.. this is why on average humans live much longer then animals on average with only certain exceptions like turtles who have outer shell (which can be used to pressurise the body) etc.etc. but no regular warm bloded animal lives longer then man.. just wanted to mention this
i had not considered ealry human civilizations in relation to salt sources but it does make sense !! thanks! commerce changes the world all day every day. facinating right
Your videos are a pleasure. Very well researched and seductively well narrated. Thank you ;)
In Thailand, there is a rock salt deposit on the mountain in Bo Kluea of Nan district. They said kings in ancient time fought over for occupying this salt well. Maybe worth visitting for your research.
Awesome video as always mate. How about a future one on the history of fish sauce
Thanks Adam. Another home run.
Excellent and informative presentation. I just LOVE salt. Much respect from Western Australia
Now I want a fish sauce episode 😀.
Talk about convienet. I got curious about this topic after hearing of a book called "The History of Salt." Haven't read it, but I like the idea.
Once again, an excellent informative show,
I knew that salt was important, but, wow, Adam, this is a deep dive. I had noticed that when pros mentioned 'seasoning' on cooking shows, they meant 'salt'.
Excellent work!!
Very well presented. Even though i read alot . I noticed salt comes up but not very often.
I love salty foods. This story is a perfect condiment to my life
This is the kind of content I live for
Eating sea salted potato chips while watching this video.. amazing experience
Top Quality as usual!
pepper would be a neat history as well or sugar, cinnamon , and clove ... adventures galore !!
The taste of prepared fish sauce is mind blowing it’s so good.
Thank you it was very interesting, and we take it for granted that salt on our tables
French tax collector: "Oooof! Your tears are salty. Yep, there's a tax for that."
Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt...hence the saying : "Not worth his salt " if they underperformed .
Turns out the viking origin story was the correct one.
Greatly enjoyed.
Great video. Very well done and educational.
At the 43:40 mark. What is the story behind the super creepy face in the wall?
Very interesting, thank you.
To that end I reply, yes the use of salt in foods is endless I'm certain. But I'm also certain of another use of salt, a different venue however, for endless medicinal purposes. Awesome subject & video! So much I didn't know. Thanks😊
I can sense anpther banger frpm OTR!!!
I love your videos as a history buff and one who likes cooking
I like fermented cabbage better than pickled sauerkraut. I still think of it as sauerkraut
Brillent! From the UK where one was seated at a feast meal as by class. 'Above salt or below salt' I guess where it was placed on the banquet table??
🙌 brilliant work…
I'm surprised that you didn't mention how the iodization of salt came to be ubiquitous in the US
Salt figured into Confucian Chinese concepts of the role of government in private industry and civil affairs: was it preferable or proper for the State to regulate or control the trade of commodities, or should it leave this to the market? These and related concerns are recorded in The Debates on Salt and Iron, which took place 2,000 years ago and are a keystone text in Confucian philosophy.